It’s cold. I’m wearing flip flops and eating a cupcake on a corner.

…then I spotted one of DC’s finest across the street, but wait. Let me tell you how I got to this point.

Duke played Michigan yesterday. Yesterday was a nice sunny day so I decided to head into the city to watch the game at this new(er) bar/lounge that’s been ridiculously packed EVERYTIME I’ve attempted to go. I figured that I’d leave early because, although it was a Sunday afternoon, it just might be packed. It literally took me about 30 minutes to find parking but in the end I got a good spot and headed into Redline-solo. I was greeted by this bouncer who may have early onset Parkinson’s (or may have been a boxer in a previous life). He assured me that the place was not crowded. What he didn’t say was that the place was virtually empty.

Anywho, I sat down and started watching the game. Sensing that I was getting a little tired of waiting on the bartender to acknowledge me, my new favorite barback, Ivan took my order and brought my drink. Ivan enjoys house music and strawberry ice cream. He’s from Serbia and thinks that ET said “GO HOME” whole making the “trekkie motion” with his fingers. It’s cool though, Ivan may have been a little confused about his movies but he was very sure about DJ Tiesto and all the clubs in DC. I was joined by two guys who struck up some small talk about DC, basketball, beer and the like. Let’s call them Salami and the Jamaican. No, he isn’t Jamaican but he is many payrolls, and when Jaz met him, it was among the first questions she asked him. Salami asks me what I want for my second round and ordered me a sample of some disgusting beer that it took the Jamaican (TJ for short) about an hour to actually finish but not before the bartender (who is afraid that he might be gay-according to his co-workers) called him out to the entire bar and Redline manager for taking SO long to finish such a small amount of beer. I talked with them up until the :30 mark in the Duke game, when Jaz came to join us. These party animals were set on getting it in on a Sunday afternoon, so more drinks were ordered and I think we converted TJ to a champagne and pineapple drinker.

*********

Not wanting the party to end- TJ suggested we get out of Redline and head to Iron Horse down the street. At that moment, I decided that I MUST GET a cupcake, and Jaz informed us that she was in dire need of chips and queso. Problem is, that Iron Horse doesn’t sell food. So…what is we gone do? Well we went to Red Velvet and got some cupcakes-some of us did. Salami took TJ’s phone and disappeared. When we emerged from Red Velvet with our cupcake goodness- we were on the corner looking around as the street corner saxophonist played Tamia’s “So Into You” which was strangely appropriate as I looked to lock eyes with Officer El. Somewhere in this short period of time TJ starts whistling for Salami to return. I called the phone, no answer. TJ walked further ahead to find Salami, but he was nowhere in sight. Officer EL and I exchange a wave and I ask Jaz to go play in traffic run across the street and give him my nimba. Being the ride or die friend that she is, she obliged and took off towards Officer El. And like a ghost, Salami returned. TJ was tuned into the convo with Jaz and Officer El and then assured me that she wasn’t going to accomplish the mission. Jaz returned and informed me that Officer El was still in the middle of issuing a ticket and wondered why I hadn’t come to introduce myself. It was simple, I was eating a cupcake and it’s not polite to talk with your mouth full. We hammer out our next location. I find a pen and write my cell on the back of my card which I was going to either drop in Officer El’s sqad car…..or tape to the windshield. I wasn’t really sure. But once I realized that Officer El wasn’t really paying attention to the person whose car was falling apart right before our eyes, I decided to hang around for a bit and introduce myself. Jaz, Salami, and TJ walked ahead and texted me to “come on” mid convo with Officer El, so we exchanged nimbas and I went on my way. As I rounded the corner to meet the crew, the car that Officer El was assisting came too, only the parts were falling off of the car. He pulled over near us to figure out what was dragging on the ground. TJ blamed me for the officer's lack of attentiveness. Shrug.

*********

It was cold outside. I was only wearing a cardigan and my flip flops were not keeping my feet warm. Someone thought it would be a great idea to run to GB. So Salami and TJ took off running across the street. Suddenly, Salami pulls a mouth guard out of his pocket and puts it in. I was really unsure what we were preparing for. Like did he catch a glimpse of a linebacker as he ran down 9th street? And who carries a mouthpiece around, like on a regular basis? We get to GB. Before we even approach the host, Salami grabs ALL (ok maybe not all but most) of the peppermints out of the jar. Like he was stockpiling peppermints. We order more drinks (SB they have happy hour prices throughout the entire NCAA tournament, #win). We get some food. We talk more. GB was about as lively as a civilized couple in divorce court. Being the most lively people in the whole restaurant (aside from our waitress with the smeared smokey eye makeup and the collarbone piercings) we decided GB was gonna be a one drink stop. We had to get out of there.

*********

Our final stop was Cuba Libre. I had to stop and put my shoes and a coat on. I was trying not to sacrifice my pedicure for the third time by wearing flip flops, but DC sent me a gentle reminder that it is still winter. Flip flops in winter=bad idea. We got to Cuba Libre, ordered a pitcher of sangria and watched as the waiter flipped his entire tray of drinks onto the floor. This was due, according to the George Bush looking fellow seated at the table, to another table member running his fingers up the waiter’s thigh and pinching him. Not true at all but fairly funny when said ALOUD in a quiet restaurant. The sangria was good. And just as TJ was about the order another, we realized that it was like 8PM. The day was done. It was time to go home.

The day started with a solo trip to Redline and ended with a couple new buddies, an impromptu bar crawl, and a man in uniform. I’ll take it.

Hot and Wet (no 112)

26 postures, 2 breathing exercises

A lot of topless men with big bellies, and everyone dripping wet.

It’s Bikram Yoga (or hot yoga).

I’ve always wanted to try this and yesterday I just dove right in. I knew that Bikram is usually done in rooms with temperatures ranging from 95-100 degrees. To be honest, though the room was at 95, it wasn’t like deathly hot. But they also pump in humidity which I wasn’t really prepared for. The stretching was great. I could literally feel my body responding to the poses and allowing itself to be stretched to new levels. I only got nauseous (which is normal) like once. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much sweat pour from my own body. I’ll admit. I loved every minute of it, and I’m going back Tuesday.

BUT warning to the sista-girls out there. My hair was a legit curly fro when I left there. Since I cut my hair (again) there was no pony tail option. And when I say you sweat- I mean you look like you’ve been standing under a shower. So word to my fellow brown girls, Bikram is GREAT, but do know that your hair will be adversely affected.

I do it for my people!

I’m young, single, no attachments, and I’ve made it a point to just experience life. But I swear, some of this stuff… I do it for the story.

After Arkansas’ win on Saturday I was energized mostly because I’d been in bed for half the day so I decided I was going to go out and grab a drink…Solo. I wanted a pineapple spicy from Buddha Bar so I figured why not? I got dressed and hopped in the car.

As I was leaving my neighbors car was outside of the gate. We’ve exchanged glances and smiles a few times, so I waved per the usual. For about a second, I was distracted by the four TV screens lit up in his car…but I digress. Anyway, he was putting something in his back seat, waved back, and got in his car. He pulled up next to me and asked when we were going out…unfortunately the lights kept changing soo we never connected.

SB from this story: went to Buddha Bar and landed me a sponsor (who told me that my mom told me to watch out for those Italian men) lol. My friend met me there just after my sponsor left. We chatted for a bit and were greeted by the crying game, a hostile J, and a prostitute after leaving. iCant.

Back to the neighbor. So I left him a note since we never got to finish our convo Saturday night. Talking to him today and he’s 21 (for a few more hours) <- his words. Umm I think that makes me a cougar. He also tells me that I can’t pronounce his name, and he was right ‘cause I have no clue how to even go about that one. I stumble across his myspace page….which literally had me dying (well that and the conversations about this from gchat). Digression: As I’m typing this…the “sponsor” just texted me about grabbing dinner, hmmmm. Where were we, oh yea. So he has a my space. Is he 12? So I ask him what he does…he’s in the military…and he works at Domino’s. Now, my awesome friends are really going in at this point. Some feel that if nothing else, I can get some free pizza but I don’t even really eat domino’s , others are asking me if I’m crazy, cuz I’m thinking of getting drinks with the kid. I mean…he’s legal right. My mom thinks I should go…and she’s 100% against the sponsor, my dad thinks the sponsor is hilarious. This is great. I generally don’t date folks younger than my sister though….sooo….hmmm.

I should probably just do it, right?

Adventures in Merryland: The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring Friends School

The day finally came. We were going to the Adventure Park at Sandy Spring. Over the summer, we saw an ad for it in a local paper and I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of going. Jaz, of course, was. Then I wrote that post after my flight to Vegas about conquering “fears” and being more adventurous. Lo and behold, a Groupon popped up for the Adventure Park and it was on from there.

Satruday afternoon we got in the car and headed to uncharted land. Sidebar: there is a whole “religious row” in Maryland. Has anyone ever seen it? There is a house of worship for like EVERY religion there. Crazy. Anyway we soon found ourselves amongst big houses with huge yards for a moment I thought I was back home , horses, and grass.

We arrived to a clearing, parked in the grass, and were met by stink bugs and this furry little caterpillar.

After putting our name on the list, we waited around for them to call us. The place was pretty busy and there was a wait. In the meantime, we asked some people who were finishing up-what their thoughts were. Surprisingly there were quite a few brown folks there. There was even a group of about 4-5 sistas doing the course together. I was quite proud of us actually.

They called our number. We got harnessed. Got the gloves. And went to safety training. All was well at this point. Then we started to climb to the main platform and I felt a wee bit of a “punk out” coming on. I convinced Jaz to start on a beginner course and we got started. Once we got going, it wasn’t so bad. We crossed a few bridges, walked some rope. And then got to the zip line-Jaz went first. I was left on the platform with two strangers. And I wasn’t sure I could go through with it. I mean, really, who thought that being suspended from a wire connected to two trees was a good idea. I hooked in and sat on the platform and the chick behind me just said- “scream if you need to”. So I let go and screamed realllllllllly loud. OMG I loved it. By that time the course was starting to get a bit backed up, I’d missed calls from 27 who was meeting us there, and there was a set of deer getting their eat on below us. OK, I know we are in their “home” and what not, but why were these deer so firkin comfortable just eating while there are folks flying and running around them? I was absolutely not ok with the deer. By this point, the reason for the back up had been identified. These three women were waiting on each other before starting the next bridge. So now everyone is pissed and finally someone yells at them to keep it moving. 27 arrived and watched us finish up the course. She and I hit another beginner course which we finished in like 5 minutes. There was a little girl on the zip line who was soo scared to go. I guess her dad got fed up with her crying and just left her there. Talk about tough love. I guess he figured that if she really wanted to get down, she would get a rescue or hook onto that zip line and keep it moving. Anyway, that one was much easier. Perhaps it was because I’d just done one on the same level, I’m not sure. We finished it quickly and I think that Jaz was only like halfway done with her “green” course so we started on a “green” of our own. It was cool, lots of bending around structures and walking on tightropes. It was a bit tiring though. So we did about half and decided to use the escape ladder to call it quits for the day. UMMM…the ladder wasn’t anchored to the ground. And I was beyond sure that I was going to smack right into that tree, but I didn’t :).

We got down, got water, and started talking to Dan, the lumberjack-carpenter-outdoorsman, and all around sweetheart. Dan was building a campfire for the Night Crawl event. (Sidebar: I don’t know who in their right mind would do those courses at night wearing only a head light and a glowstick, but to each his own I suppose). Anyway, we talked to Dan for a while and then the evening got interesting.
I pulled my ticket out of my shirt pocket as we headed towards the car. And went over to the other pocket to get my key. Umm…it aint thurr. Yes, read that out loud. WHERE IS MY KEY? So I tell Dan that I lost it and he gives me a headlight to go into the woods and search it out. After a few minutes of looking, we had nothing. Then we get stopped by some chicks to take a picture of them and I think I snapped at first. I didn’t mean to, heck they didn’t know that I’d just misplaced a $300 key. Anyway, as we are thinking out the options- Jaz asks if AAA would be any help. Yes, AAA can open the car, I can pop the trunk, we can get the keys to my apartment and I can get my spare and get my car. She gets on the phone with them and I decide to call my apartment complex to see if someone could let me in just in case AAA is going to take hours to get here. The woman says that my complex doesn’t offer lock-out services after hours. WTF. Yep, it’s more than time to move for soooo many reasons . AAA says it will be like 45 minutes. 27 offers to take me home to get my spare. She leaves to get some food but because there is NOTHING out here in the woods, her adventure takes a while. Jaz and I sat around Dan’s campfire until the AAA man arrived. He didn’t call first. He pulled right up (he later told us that he’s been here a few times for lock-outs). He was also bumping rap music. The AAA man MUST be a rapper. David gets out the car, very Eminem-esque. Tatted up- but so professional. He broke into my car (legally) and the alarm went off, simply because the iKey wasn’t around. I tried to pop the trunk. NOTHING! Apparently as a security feature, the trunk won’t open without the iKey present. ARRGH and just as I’m freaking out- David tells me to calm down. He climbs into the back seat, pulls down the seat, and gets my purse and Jaz’s bag out of the trunk. He put everything back where it was. Yes, I’m harping on his good service because lots of customer service people give TERRIBLE service but David was GREAT! We get into the car, turn the alarm off. Jaz retrieves her AAA card and 27 pulls up. Perfect timing. We go home, get the key, and we return to my car. I leave my info at the park just in case someone finds the key.

At this point, I’ve accepted that I’m down to one key because I just don’t see myself purchasing another iKey anytime soon. Oh well, at least it made for an interesting story right?

Fast forward to Sunday. I got a call from an unknown number and since black people don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, I let it ring / . I listened to the voicemail. It was John. Another guy from the park. SOMEONE FOUND MY KEY! I went right over and picked it up. Dan was there, harnessing folks. He and John were happy that someone found it and so was I! Great ending to an eventful weekend.

Speed Dating Recap

Edited: Names have been changed to protect the innocent. but you know who you are

Fried or Fertilized

That was the top question on my list.

I got a call from Jaz yesterday inviting me to a Speed Date event in the city. Never one to disappoint… I was in.

We arrive at the venue and its-small. We made our way through the crowd to the bar only to be bumped and bruised by DC’s anti-finest. It was like we were at an event for the young and rude. Only in DC have I repeatedly experienced fancy rude men. Ugh. After waiting at the crowded bar for like 10 we finally order our drinks. It’s Wednesday night, and while the rest of the crowd was going “HAM” –we opted for beer (which without fail becomes the topic of conversation). So we wander around for a minute to find a place to squat. After settling in- this guy says he’s not going to participate in speed dating because he was surrounded by enough women right where he was. OK- so as he talked Jaz’s ear off about how they do the same job (which they don’t), why she’s drinking a beer (and he’s empty handed), and what his name is (which I suppose, she was supposed to guess based on the initials monogrammed on his shirt)- I looked past them to observe the room. I took inventory of the other chicks in the room and I genuinely felt bad for some of them. The look of desperation and thirst was painted on with emotional body paint. I could tell they were serious about the event and catchin’ them a man I blame all those damn CNN reports for this . SO then the annoying guy starts talking to his friend with the grey linen (read: summer appropriate fabric) jacket and a big butt which literally knocked me over because he felt the need to “squeeze” by me. Your arse is too big for that. And didn’t say excuse me. Ugh.

The event was a little disorganized. So as we waited for our “round” we started to look at the guys that hadn’t gone yet and knew that we would be in for quite the ….experience. We sat down for one round but were booted by the organizers and side-eyed by a couple thirsty chicks who were anxiously awaiting their turn to meet Mr. Right now because of a “mix up” so we went downstairs to the grown folks lounge until it was our time. When we came back upstairs we met T-. He was sitting at the bar, with a plate of burger and fries. I was debating about asking him for a French fry buy damn if he hadn’t devoured them by the time that I looked back down at his plate. He went on to explain that he’s a student so he only eats a meal a day or something and that his momma only taught him to cook eggs and steak (which he can’t afford), so he starves.

At some point in the night we started a question list. The first three questions were: (1) fried or fertilized, (2) can you teach me how to dougie, and (3) Gucci or waka? The entire list was 12 questions long , but I knew that I would get what I needed from those three questions. My rationale: if you entertained any of these questions then you probably don’t take yourself too seriously and are laid back, I can dig that.

Finally, it was our turn to sit. Now to the stank heffa that saw me toss my purse in the seat and proceeded to sit at the table anyway and then acted like I was speaking Latin (yes, I know it’s not a spoken language) when I told her that there was an open seat at the other table…you get a “chile please.” We held our spots down anyway and jumped right in. In summary : all but maybe one or two of the guys I met were Kappas though I ‘m not sure they were all Nupes , were either from Durham or Michigan, and were either in law or medical school or were currently practicing. To be fair-this event was hosted by HU Law students so I guess that was to be expected. And I’m not sure but I think some of them may have had some “challenges”, I’m not sure if it was the really slow talking or the creepy smile, but yeah.

Ok so now onto the characters we met:

First up was curly haired Nupe –Morehouse Grad. He was nice. He was from Detroit and had no desire of going back. He’s Georgia barred so his plan is to move to Atlanta in 6-9 months though he said that he’s been saying that same thing for 6-9 months. There wasn’t really anything standout about him. I’m not sure that I even got to the questions list with him so…..

Uh I don’t even remember the order of these people….

Grey shirt nu Kappa.- ok his head was a little large, his speech was a little slow, and his smile was creepy. When asked “fried or fertilized” his answer was fertilized (as was the choice of everyone that I asked) and NONE of them knew what I was referring to. He was from Durham. I think he was a law student but I was just really confused by his presence. I think I was a little creeped out and wasn’t sure where to look.

Then there was the medical student. He had on a nice tie. His baby fro was a bit out dated, but I suppose he’s good with it. He spent the entire three minutes talking about his interest in men’s health and how prostate cancer is killing our men. He went to some small school in Alabama and was apparently older than he looked. He also wore the smile of a creeper…or maybe he was just eager.

There was "That Guy" I think he was drunk. He didn’t answer questions (with truth). He went to the U for undergrad and it turns out that we know some of the same people. His line to me” ay can we just forget the little paper. Can I just have your number?” Umm sir that’s against the rules and time is up. He moved on to Jaz and I guess he was still talking about getting my number…she also reiterated that was against the rules. FF to the end of the night. He sees me leaving and says Oh you were gone leave without giving me that number huh. So he slips me his on a piece of paper that says “Call me (Name) (xxx)xxx-xxxx)”. I looked at my cell once I left there and I coincidentally had a message from the person that he and I both know who confirmed that he was wack and indeed one of those people who feels the need to know everyone. Ugh. I’m good.

Then there was the series of kappas from philly. They all went to either UPENN or Drexel, were linebrothers or neos, and smelled of similac. There was the cookie (or french fry) monstor who (go figure) was the baby in his family and the starving student. Next came "Losing Isiah" who was soft-spoke and probably a little socially awkward. There was Apollo or whatever his name was- from Sierra Leone. He apparently went to one year of high school in Oak Cliff (TX) and considered himself BFFs with a friend of mine from college. I wonder if TX even remembers him? Anyway I asked him if he could teach me how to dougie…he said no. He doesn’t do that. Ugh. I guess he’s too fancy.

I don’t remember which guy this was but I told him to pick a number 1-3 and he picked 4. I asked him kindly to pick 1-3. We ended up going through all three. He preferred fertilized, said he does “coon” so he could not teach me how to dougie, and looked appalled that I would ask a question “Gucci or waka”, he chose Gucci because he might have a small advantage on the intelligence front over waka. At this point I decided that he was not enough fun and thankfully time was up. G’bye.

I know I’m leaving some people out. Oh there was "one of the organizers"- the guy that had us sit down the first time (when we got booted) and insisted all night that "it wasn't his job to do x, y or z". He was so anxious to talk to the stank chick on the other side of me that when he sat down..I told him that I hope I wouldn’t disappoint because he was just so excited about his last encounter. He decided that I was holding a grudge from earlier or something. I don’t remember ish about him. Really.

OHHH I forgot about the turtle looking guy. He legit reminded me of the Terp mascot. He was filling in for someone. A third year in law school. I don’t remember where he was from. He was strange.

The last guy I met was an alpha from ARho (Morehouse and a different breed of APHIA). He was cool. He was actually from Durham and went to law school with my linesister so he started naming people that we probably knew (even though I told him that I probably don’t talk to whoever it was). He named someone by their nickname and I was just perplexed at the fact that they go around identifying herself as such….aren’t you grown? Prob not. Anyway. He’s been here a couple months. Clerks for a judge and deals with felons on the regular which he says are always guilty in his cases :/. He was a nice ending to the night.

Alas, it was over. I didn’t fill out my sheet. Honestly, I forgot to fill it out and I wasn’t taking it seriously so….yeah.

It was a good time (minus the dis-organization and rudeness). I’d definitely do it again. Any of you ever been?

iLove: Exploring the City

Ok the pic of the Balenciaga shoe is totally random...but me likey!

Last night, MM and I went to "A View from the Top", the DC Foto Week Preview event at 425 Mass. Honestly, it was such a good view we called 06 to come and join us. To my surprise, she actually did which was awesome!

Anyway, we get there, offered blue martinis upon arrival and we explored the rooftop. 425 is a really great location for city living and comes with the price tag to prove it. (We later took a tour of the property and while it was "cute" that small arse kitchen and second bedroom were beyond impractical).

The view of the city was amazing...to the left was the Capitol and to the right was the Washington Monument or the Klan monument with the red eyes as Dr. Davy calls it .

The rooftop is complete with grills, reading nooks, lounge furniture, a single lane lap pool, and a full rooftop party pool. Seriously, it's really nice. But enough about that. Can we talk about how the band played Ledesi and Eryakh Badu all night, or how the MM thought the brotha on the keys was really handsome until she noticed that his face was a bit too long. Or how "Shawn" offered to let her come up and sing a tune with the band?

Can we talk about the girl with her toes pushed way to the front of her flower sandals which is apparently only acceptable if you are wearing stripper shoes ? Or the guy who took several hors d'oeuvres from the plate at a time, including making a ranch and empanada sammich- devoured that ish and belched EXTRA loud?

I think my favorite thing of the whole night (aside from the Red Velvet Cupcakes (clearly made for the event as they were nto properly iced with cream cheese) was the photo booth. Guests were invited to take silly pics which were then projected on the wall of the rooftop for everyone to see.

So many fun! What are you doing? Go out and live!

Sidenote: I am seriously considering trying out for the Baltimore Charm this weekend. I'm not really afraid of the uniform...I'm more afraid that my football skills aren't up to par- these chicks really play!

Merryland weekend recap

With all of the CBC happenings going on, I wanted to take some time to enjoy my new-found free Saturdays.

I've been obsessing over peacocks and the sidekick (Jaz) was totally down for going peacocking with me. So I had two options: a peafowl farm-out in the woods of southern Maryland or this other "farm" not too far from my house which wasn't exclusively peacock filled, but would also have other animals. I read the reviews of this farm and it talked about the lunch time feeding of the animals and other volunteer opps. Turns out that Jaz loves animals (like actual animals other than dogs and peacocks) so she voted for the actual "farm".

So Saturday comes around and we are all ready for the farm. We get to the park and can't find parking near the farm because everyone is having play dates at the playground. So we park on the other side of the park (the farm is a part of a county park) and trek past the little league football games to the "farm". We pass all of the mommy and me and daddy and me duos on the sidewalk and alas...we are here. We look at each other as we try to figure out where to start and head to the "cat scratch" or whatever the name of the gift shop was. We get there and it's empty, but I do notice the very pretty peacock feathers in the corner. After belting "hello" a homely looking woman-aptly dressed in overalls and farm boots with a long pony tail arrives. We ask her about feeding time for the animals because we had planned to participate. After shooting us a quick o_O the lady informed us that they hadn't done that in about 10 years! Annnnd cue the crickets and the cameras pan to our faces which are wearing quite the confused look. She informed us that the animals are on strict diets and feeding schedules and that allowing guests to feed them would just not work. So then we ask her where we start...she says to just go around the circle and see the animals. We take off, a wee bit disappointed, but first stop: the rabbits. Ok so the one rabbit not in a cage was really fat. Jaz was obsessed with his hop, but he looked overweight and uncomfortable to me. Across the way there's a mom and two boys looking at the caged rabbits and all we hear is yelling "stop this, stop that". Now I'm not sure exactly what was goin on over there, but these kids were about to get it. They did have a cute moment though when one told the other that the tail was made of cotton. We moved on from the rabbits to the chickens. Now this is the point at which you can buy little seeds to "throw" into the cages for the birds to eat. I hear the mother yelling about "not spending another 25 cent on the food if the machine don't work" followed by the sound of hitting the dispensing machine. Why can't our people do better? Anyway, some of the chickens were balding and that strange so we didn't spend too much time there. FINALLY WE REACH THE PEACOCKS (in their cage) . They were very pretty and we basically just gawked at them for a while. We moved on to the turkeys (one of which had growths on its foot leading me to believe that this "farm" was more of a rescue shelter), then to the ducks and roosters (which cock-a-doodle-dooed for a while) through the lazy llama and sheep finally to the big arsed cow and the ponies. FYI: Ponies are not baby horses. since I am sure that I am not the only one that went through childhood thinking that . I wanted a peacock feather but had left my cash in the car so we trekked back to the car for dollars...and back to the farm and then basically stood in the sun while some kid's entire birthday entourage took turns riding the ponies. I'm happy they had fun but I couldn't understand why someone couldn't break away and let me into the gift shop. hmph.

Got my feather. All was well. Next stop: Carolina Kitchen for some lunch and football. We went to the one in Largo. One word: Fail. That is more like a "to go" buffet than a restaurant and I wasn't feeling that so we drove across town to the one that I knew had a bar and actual restaurant with servers. We made it just in time for the Duke game and left mid-first quarter (those of you that watched know exactly why).

I met Miss Mistress at the Beacon for some rooftop mingling. We met Mr. Smile there but in true DC fashion- the rooftop was full of familiar faces (including two of my linesisters-digression: IM is everywhere and we might make up 90% of the gucci fan club). All was well until I stood at the very crowded bar for about 10 minutes waiting on my margarita and this guy moves in front of me. I didn't really care-I'm patient but then Miss Mistress and her friend point out the fact that this brotha is wearing (un-evenly) cuffed jeans and dress shoes. Basically is ensemble was tres confused. I looked at ole boy's face and he was actually someone that I'd met on spring break years ago...a que from south carolina. #Fail. We enjoyed the conversation, drinks, waka & and gucci, and got out of there and headed to dinner with 06.

We at at Bus Boys and Poets and since I'm not a fan of the place, I decided to at least make the meal interesting. There was a group of questionably fancy young men sitting next to us and when they got up to leave, one took a liking to 06. So I invited him to sit. He introduced himself. Then he started going on and on about people that we both or all knew, what he did for a living...the usual DC pitch. He sat through our dinner and clearly annoyed MM and 06 but I found it all a bit funny. Here's this guy who's trying his hardest to appear "less fancy" but failing at it and he's so wrapped up into who he knows that he can't even see that no one at the table is interested....

We ended the night at Teatro's which was an interesting experience. Mr. Smile and his frat brother (who was a little extra for the night but was at least enjoying himself) also came through. The atmosphere was cool until the 15 minute music pause. I don't know what happened, but it suddenly went from Saturday night kickin' it to Wednesday evening networking. My most poignant observation of the night: a couple duke alumna who have seemingly lost weight over the last couple years but have that whole "big head" thing going on now. Yes ladies, there is a such thing as being too skinty. Some sizes work well on people and on others it just looks....strange. Someone let their neos loose for the night, and these young nupes started strolling in the middle of the floor. Not like a line of them. Just two eager beavers...and with that it was time to roll...